15th Nov 2019 10:51
(Alliance News) - Home fittings maker Samuel Heath & Sons PLC held its interim dividend Friday after profit narrowed on higher costs, despite revenue rising in an uncertain market.
For the six months ended September, pretax profit narrowed 9.7% to GBP363,000 from GBP402,000 the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 3.0% to GBP6.9 million from GBP6.7 million a year before.
Profit performance was hurt by a rise in administrative and finance costs during the period.
"Despite all the political and economic uncertainties in the UK, our six-month figures showed profit before tax down only a little on the prior period, but ahead of our internal budget," Chair Sam Heath said.
"Although the UK market is showing up some classic signs of a downturn, we received enough orders, particularly for our newer products, backed up by our export sales, to produce the current result," Sam Heath added.
Samuel Heath proposed a 5.5 pence per share interim dividend, unchanged on the year prior.
"I cannot believe that yet again that I have to bring up Brexit as the reason for continued uncertainties, which could affect the next six months quite dramatically," Sam Heath continued. "To this must now be added the election here in UK, as well as others coming up elsewhere in the world. It is very difficult to forecast how all these factors will affect our second half trading."
Shares in Samuel Heath were untraded at 299.00 pence in London on Friday.
By Ahren Lester; [email protected]
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